


this last of dear october's days

by lavenderseaslug



Category: Holby City
Genre: F/F, Halloween, spooky scary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 12:17:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12581724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lavenderseaslug/pseuds/lavenderseaslug
Summary: short halloween silliness. five times Serena wore a costume





	this last of dear october's days

_one_.

When Serena McKinnie is asked what she would like to dress up as for Halloween, her prompt response is “a doctor.” Her mother finds a pattern at a local craft store that she fusses with, makes look enough like a set of scrubs that Serena’s young heart is satisfied. They find a white lab coat and Serena writes her own name in careful capitals, tongue between her teeth, putting a “Dr.” at the front of it with a smile.

She wears her costume to school, gets tears in her eyes when Michael Jameson tells her that girls can’t be doctors. And then she firms up, juts out her chin and tells him she’s going to be one of the best doctors in the country. “And if you ever come into my hospital, I’m telling them to let you die.” Her teacher gives her lines to write for that and she spends the rest of the afternoon in the corner of the classroom, carefully writing out her punishment.

_two._

At university, a fancy dress party means something else, and Serena rolls her eyes as her roommates plan out some sort of ridiculous costume for the three of them to wear. “Sexy blind mice?” she asks, but puts on the short black dress, wears the dark sunglasses.

They get wolf whistles as they walk to another friend’s home and Serena wishes she hadn’t agreed to do this at all. She splits up from her roommates when they arrive, ends up explaining her costume most of the night. She gets a beer from a cooler in one of the bedrooms, nurses it in the corner, watching the party go by.

“Where are your other two?” a female voice asks from Serena’s left and she turns to look at the speaker, finds a woman dressed in red and white stripes, a beanie on her head.

“Aren’t you the one we’re supposed to be looking for, Wally?” she asks, eyebrow raised. That earns her a laugh, and the woman touches her can to Serena’s, a mock cheers.

Serena ends up kissing Where’s Wally in the dark corner of a house party on Halloween, and all she can think is that she tastes like beer and sugar. She loses her sunglasses, her mouse ears go askew, but all she cares about is the other woman’s mouth on her own.

Her roommates ask where she got to, point at the purplish bruise on her neck and Serena’s fingers go to her lips, remembering the feeling, like lying in bed at night after a day of swimming. She just shrugs, says she had a good time, found someone interesting to talk to.

_three._

An F2 tells her that they’re all expected to wear costumes for Halloween. She wants to impress in this menial task, just as she does in everything else. She finds a white dress, ties up her long hair into buns on either side of her head. She contemplates finding a toy blaster to hook to her hip, but thinks that wouldn’t play well in a hospital.

When she arrives at the hospital in the morning, not a single other doctor, medical student, nurse, not one single person is dressed in costume. She sees the F2 laughing behind his hand, briefly thinks about what it would be like to punch another person, but remembers the Hippocratic Oath.

She pastes a smile on her face, stands bravely during her chastisement for belittling the profession with costumes and silliness. She changes into the tan scrubs of her unit and stuffs her costume in her locker, her face burning. She thinks if she’s ever in charge of a unit, she’ll let her staff dress up, have some fun, thinks the patients would like it as much as the staff.

_four._

Serena didn’t think Bernie Wolfe would like costumes, would wear one. When she invites Bernie over, along with the rest of AAU, to her house for a fancy dress party, she’s surprised that she actually shows up, wearing a witch’s hat and a cloak no less. She even has an old broom in one hand. Bernie takes in Serena’s surprised expression, lifts her shoulder in a shrug. “You invited me,” she says, and Serena’s heart pitter-patters in her chest.

It’s still new, tentative, between them. Serena watches Bernie move around the party, exchanging polite words with Fletch, Raf, Morven. She moves to a corner of the room, finds Jason, and he tells her facts about the history of Halloween. Bernie takes it all in very seriously, nodding along.

It’s later, when Jason has excused himself to bed and things are calming down, people leaving, that Serena finds Bernie, sidles up to her. “I like your costume,” she says, her voice low. “Very...bewitching.”

Bernie rolls her eyes, groans. “And you, Ms. Campbell. Decided to go whole hog with the Fraulein bit, did we?” Serena does a modest curtsy in her curtain-dress, a Maria von Trapp with dark hair, but just as dulcet of a singing voice, as she proved earlier, gracing the assemblage with a few bars of Edelweiss.

“Just one of my favorite things,” she answers, tucks her hand into Bernie’s elbow. “Would it be presumptuous of me to ask if you might take me for a ride on that?” She points at the broomstick, an eyebrow raised and she can tell Bernie’s resisting the urge to roll her eyes again.

“I can think of far...better things for you to ride,” Bernie says, and with that, Serena ushers Bernie upstairs, ignoring the few stragglers of the party, calling down that they can let themselves out, to make sure they shut the door behind them. Bernie’s hat ends up on the door knob, the pointed tip flopping down, her witch’s cape a puddle of black on the floor. Serena’s dress comes off easily and she kicks it aside.

“Thank you for coming,” she says seriously, her eyes dark, dancing, the feeling of Bernie pressed against her almost overtaking her senses.

“I’m not coming yet,” Bernie answers, grinning, and it’s Serena’s turn to laugh, her breasts bouncing, jostling, and she can see Bernie watching their movement. But her face turns grave for a moment, and she leans in to kiss Serena, a swift peck on the lips, and she says, “I’ll do anything you ask me to.”

It’s not a declaration of love, but Serena takes it for what it is, pulls Bernie in close, wraps her arms around her.

_five._

Halloween seems to come more quickly than other holidays, somehow. Maybe it’s because there’s not as much build-up, like there is for Christmas or Easter. Suddenly the end of October is nearing, and she remembers the holiday is coming upon her. Bernie jokingly suggests they wear matching costumes, and regrets the joke later when Serena takes her up on it, gets them each a red shirt emblazoned with “Thing 1” and “Thing 2.”

“Be glad I’m not making you have silly hair on top of it all,” Serena says as Bernie pulls the shirt on over her scrubs. Serena beams at her, looks out at the rest of AAU, Morven with cat ears on, a black nose painted in the middle of her face, whiskers on her cheeks. Fletch has some sort of haphazard children’s cartoon character picked out for him by Mikey, and Raf has on a very casual Han Solo costume. Serena thinks back to her days as an F1, remembers so clearly the embarrassment she felt, thinks she’s done well, in this at least.

They leave the hospital together, collapse on the sofa, with just enough time to order a pizza to be delivered before the doorbell starts ringing. “Christ, I forgot to get -” Serena is cut off as Bernie appears from the kitchen with a bowl full of candy and goes to answer the door.

“You remembered,” she says, mouth open in disbelief. Bernie turns to look over her shoulder, and just shrugs. Serena’s beginning to see the code hidden within the gesture, when she’s uncomfortable, when she’s denying herself praise, when she’s upset. This is a shrug that means she knows she’s doing something that’s going to please Serena. It comes with a small smirk, too, and Serena just thinks she’s going to kiss the expression off her face when she gets back.

“You remembered,” she says again when Bernie settles beside her on the couch. Bernie turns to her, waits patiently for Serena to express her gratitude, a kiss to her lips, to her chin, to that soft spot on her neck that makes shivers fly through Bernie’s body.

“It seemed important,” Bernie says, and that’s enough for Serena. That’s how it is. Bernie knows what’s important. She’s a trauma surgeon, and will triage things throughout the day. Paperwork and filing are low on her scale, but somehow, because she knows it will matter to Serena, she’s placed buying candy to give to costumed children quite high on her list of priorities.

“Thank you,” she says, nuzzles right into Bernie’s hair, mouthing Bernie’s earlobe, nipping softly.

“Enough. Or we’ll never answer the door again, and we’ll have wasted all this candy,” Bernie says, but she doesn’t move away from Serena, just tilts her head to give Serena better access, and Serena laughs as she presses an open-mouthed kiss to Bernie’s collarbone. Bernie laughs, too, gathers Serena in her arms.

“I do have a question, though,” she says, and Serena pulls back enough so she can look into Bernie’s eyes, tries to gauge how serious this question will be.

“Why are _you_ Thing 1?”


End file.
